To extend the life of a circular saw blade, the sawmill industry utilizes sharpening or profiling machines for regrinding the top and face portions of the teeth of the blade. In order to grind each tooth of a circular saw blade, the saw mill industry utilizes a variety of mechanisms to hold and position the saw blade relative to a grinder so that the teeth can be ground one at a time. For example, conventional sharpening machines include an indexing mechanism having a feed finger that contacts each saw blade tooth and rotates each tooth toward the grinder or grinding wheel. The indexing mechanism is conventionally actuated by either a linear actuator or by a cam assembly. Once in position, the sharpening machine plunges the grinding wheel into a gullet between adjacent teeth of the saw blade to sharpen a cutting face of the tooth.